Opera Software and Apple Computer have spoken with members of the
XForms working group and other interested parties with the intention
of resolving the recent disputes over XForms.
In summary, we don't have anything against XForms 1.0 as long as the
recommendation clearly states that it is not a *replacement* for HTML
forms, but that XForms 1.0 is a language targetted at higher level Web
applications using complex forms. Also, W3C must make a commitment
to maintaining and improving the existing HTML Forms technology.
Currently XForms can be converted to HTML forms on the server side.
This conversion, however, is unnecessarily complex and could be
improved by simple extensions to HTML. Our main concern is not
XForms 1.0 itself, but the conversion path, which we believe
requires more work.
Given extensions to HTML form controls designed to address a subset
of XForms 1.0's feature set, we believe server-side XForms 1.0
processors could send significantly less code to the client than in
today's practice, which uses extensive scripting to enable XForms in
current Web browsers. Opera will work together with other interested
parties to specify such extensions and incremental improvements.
Individual members of the XForms working group have offered their
help to ensure that the mapping between XForms 1.0 and the
incremental improvements to existing Web browser technologies is as
simple as possible without breaking backwards-compatibility, which
is greatly appreciated. This work will result in a submission to the
W3C, with the intention of maintaining and progressing this work in
the appropriate W3C working group(s).
We would like to emphasize that we see this additional work to be
fully complementary to XForms 1.0, easing its adoption and enabling
a transition; however, without the availability of such incremental
improvements to existing Web browser technologies, adoption of
XForms 1.0 will be limited -- which is the core of Apple and Opera's
reviews of XForms 1.0.
Therefore, given a commitment from the W3C that maintenance and
incremental improvements to the existing HTML Forms technology will
be worked on in good faith, we see no reason for XForms 1.0 not to
progress to Recommendation stage.
-h&kon
HÃ¥kon Wium Lie CTO Â°Ã¾eÂ®Âª
howcome@opera.com http://people.opera.com/howcome